I’ve always been pretty keen on me nature, and while traveling around the world have always tried to include an animal watch. Cambodia has afforded some great opportunities over the years. I’ve been lucky enough to take a couple of tours to Prek Toal in North-West Siem Reap province. Leaving the dirt bike behind , the site is only reached by boat and is home to one of largest and most unique water bird colonies in SE Asia. Stunning sight. 1000’s of water birds nexting in a small area on the Prek Toal river. A sight you would more readily expect in Africa.
Looks like another site has been opened to the public in Preah Vihear province The Tmatboey Ibis Project, home of many of the rare water birds such as the Greater and Lesser Adjutant as well as the Ibis and Sarus Crane and very rare Vultures. Definately going to incorporate a visit into one of next seasons dirt bike tours. The WCS have more details:

http://www.wcs.org/globalconservation/Asia/Cambodia/Cambodia_Eco-tourism/Tmatboey_Ibis_Project

If you like Super Motos, carbon fibre and Bimotas you gonna love this

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/upload/212528/images/1024.jpg

I was sitting outside the Flamingo Hotel in Phnom Penh, having a coffee and waiting for a friend, when a big fella with a Thai-registered Africa Twin pulled up. I went over for a look and a chat as a fellow Africa Twin owner and enthusiast. He told me about a trip he was planning to Tibet on a Chinese bike out of where he was based in Chiang Mai. I was in a state of fascination and some disbelief. China and Tibet are like Holy Grails in Asian Bike tour circles. Tibet especially. The Chinese are not well known for their accommodating attitudes to adventurers. And Phnom Penh is a magnet for international Story Tellers, or put more bluntly BullShitters. Nice Africa Twin and big story, I think and get on with the day. I take it all back. I am wrong. And Robert, you are now one of my heros. Check out his ballsy trip at

http://www.at-asia.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8549#8549

Good luck on the next leg I will watch with anticipation and am inspired to try the same. And the forum the story is posted on is pretty cool too.

In 2001 myself and Ben Laffer of Tours In The Extreme organized what still stands as the largest off-road event in Cambodian history in the shape of the Caltex Extreme Rally Raid 2001. Fifty-five dirt bikers, several support vehicle, including a six-wheel drive Russian army lorry called a Zil. And a charitable theme, as, I seem to remember saying in the documentary that went with the event “proving that dirt bikers can be humanitarians too.” With the support of the National Malaria Centre we distributed over 1500 mosquito nets through the provinces that the Rally travelled. It became incorporated into the Cambodia Daily’s Mosquito net campaign and they did a piece about it:
http:// http://www.cambodia.net/malaria/27_12_01.htm

Big thank you to everybody who came to our wedding on June 20th. What a day! Great fun and luckily for us the weather turned up trumps, raining hard the day before and the day after. Big thanks to Craig Mapleston for being my best man and all to the people who sent gifts. The money we were given will be put towards a motorcycle tour of North Africa in the autumn on the Africa Twin before returning to Cambodia for another busy season.

When I were but a young man, with aspirations of becoming a motorcycle road tester, and broke, I wrote a piece about the bike I had just purchased, a Kawasaki ZZR250, hoping the article might get noticed and I might make a bit of cash. Rockin’ little machine it was, and the only vehicle I’ve ever bought brand new. The piece appeared in the Used Motorcycle Guide, but unfortunately no cheque appeared in the post or job offers and I forgot all about it. But with the advent of the Internet every little thing you may have written and had printed (no matter how bad it is) can come back to haunt you. And nearly 20 years later, the jottings of a teenage wanna-be road tester are still there to be read…
http:// http://www.umgweb.com/member1/kGPZ500.htm#zzr22

Despite a slow start to the season, with easter being spread over four weeks, we’ve managed to get out in the jet boat plenty and have been rewarded with some fine sightings. None better than a couple of killer whale or Orca on June 6, almost a year to the day and within 3 miles of ocean of the sightings of the black and white beasties last year. Turns out it would appear to have been the same fish! Comparing photos of the unique markings on the dorsal fins of the male in both sightings reveal that it could be a whale nick-named Jon Coe, an old boy who is regularly seen off the Hebrides in Scotland. It’s been specualted that, with such a large Seal population around Pembrokeshire, why whales and other large predators aren’t seen here more often. Especially at pupping time, August thru October. Maybe we will start seeing more. Hope so.

At the tail end of the recent Extreme Rally Raid we ran through the Cardomoms, starting in Pailin, down to Prammouy, across to O Soam, with an overnight and then down to Koh Kong the next day. And there have been a couple of changes. While I was there last season with a group our favourite guesthouse in O Soam (not much of a competition as there is only two!) had been taken over by Chinese construction workers. The guesthouse owner told me that they were there to start construction on a hydroelectric power project. Being a nosey type I took a ride down to the site, along a track recently pushed through virgin rain forest. The site itself, inhabited by Cambodian workers from Kampot, and some shifty looking Chinese chain smokers looked more like a logging/hunting/mineral exploration camp, complete with traps and pans for sifting. Cynically I just assumed the hydro thing was a ruse to cover the other activities. But on our return this year we were told again that this was the case, lots more Chinese in residence in O Soam and shortly after news in the press concerning the project:

http:// http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/06/content_7578043.htm

As part of the project the road from O Soam to Prammouy is to be renovated, to run power lines and a new road is to run from Koh Kong, along the Thai border, to the Hydro-Station, again for power lines. And the bridge components that have lain undisturbed at river crossing number 4, (from KK) along with the big wooden house on wheels, have gone, after a dozer was pushed through to retrieve them. The bridge will go along the new road from KK to OS apparently. And the trail from OS to KK was the most over-grown I’ve ever seen it, obviously suffering from lack of use. Five hours of sharp bamboo and grasses to the face. Nice. Lets hope the new trails will enhance the tracks thought the Cardomoms and not destroy them for us dirt bikers….

Travelling Don also forwarded me this piece of sad news:
Attention! May 5, 2008
California 2 on the
Riverfront will close its doors. The property has been sold and we must move. It
is uncertain as to when and where we wil reopen. In the meantime we will be
taking a long overdue holiday. To all of the people who supported us and
contributed to our success, we thank you. It has been a wonderful 13 years and
we have enjoyed serving you. We look forward to serving you again in the future.
In the meantime this website will still remain on line to provide you with
valuable tourist information. Be sure to check out our links. Cambodia is turning the
corner. Is this a signal to the end of an
ERA?

California 2 has always been a dirt biker and overland bike traveller mecca, and meeting place on the riverfront. Jimmy, the proprietor, being an excellent host and true Cambo and Dirt Bike enthusiast. It was a few years ago that he really opened my eyes up to the number of Angkorian Temples there are in country. Even in my extensive travels around the country never realised there were so many. Almost every village has a small ancient monument of some sort. And Jimmy made it his mission to hunt them down, photograph them and then tell others to go check em out. It was rare you left the bar without a small hand drawn map directing you to his latest find. I hope they find new premises soon!

On the recently relaunched Phnom Penh Post website there is a story that claims London is more dangerous than Phnom Penh. No surprise to anyone whose been lucky enough to live in Phnom Penh. Those Dodgy Londoners. Must be all those wannabe cockney gansters and kids in hoodies. I’ve always felt safer on Asian city streets than the ones of my own country (Phnom Penh during the Coup in 97, or Kabul during the shelling in 92 not included…). Ignorance of the dangers or naivity perhaps but Asian cities have never seemed to have that edge. The edge of aggression bubbling just under the surface. Check out the story:
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=535&Itemid=52